The Philosophers Stone
by shiechan
Summary: A new stone has been created, and Voldemort wants to get his hands on it. But he's not the only one. Many new faces have made an appearance, and everyone's here for the same thing: The Philosopher's Stone. HPFMAIY Crossover
1. Headmaster

Disclaimer

I don't own Harry Potter or related characters.

Beginning Notes: This is a teaser, originally meant to stir up interest for the story. Now it is more of a prolouge, but its gotta be kept up due to the fact it does start the story off. It was originally written by the person who owns this account - shiechan - and later edited by me - Stripe - since I basically took over the story for her. All writing after this chapter belongs to me, though the basic plot idea of crossing the fandoms over belongs to shiechan.

The Philosophers Stone

Teaser - The Headmaster

-0-

"He is a greasy overgrown bat," Ron said angrily as soon as he Hermione and Harry had gotten out of the Potion teacher's hearing range.

Harry opened his mouth to agree, but before he had the chance he felt a hand on his shoulder. The young wizard turned to see Professor Dumbledore facing him. "Um… Hello Professor.." Harry said guiltily, hoping Dumbledore hadn't heard him.

Professor Dumbledore looked at him gravely, yet still maintaining his usual twinkling eyes, "Hello, children. Harry, if I may see you in my office for a moment…"

Harry nodded, saying, "Of course Professor."

They started to walk off leaving Hermione and Ron staring after them, curious expressions on their face.

-0-

"Professor? Why did you want to see me," Harry asked, sitting in the Headmaster's office.

Dumbledore's eyes suddenly lost their usual twinkle and he became washed out looking. "There is a new Philosopher's Stone, and soon... Voldemort may get it..."

-End Teaser-

Ending Notes:

I know this is very very short, but remember, it was a teaser. The other chapters are much much longer, I promise.


	2. The Feudal Era

Beginning Notes: Jombo! This is Stripe, the co-writer of this fanfiction. I wrote this entire chapter by my lonesome. Hence why it took so long. I have other fanfictions, and schoolwork doesn't help either.

Fwa... I know lots of you wanted FMA, but do not despair! Inuyasha is first because I wrote it first, but next chapter is centric around FullMetal Alchemist, so you'll all get your wish. However, Artemis Fowl may not be included unless shiechan decides to help, or I(Stripe) reread the books.

Please note this is my first attempt into the Harry Potter fandom, so I do not know much about the characters apart from what I've read in the books. Therefore it is quite likely they will be out of character. Forgive me!

The Philosopher's Stone

Written by - Shiechan and Stripe

Chapter 1 - The Feudal Era

-0-

Naraku sat in a secluded cabin, looking very much human. Unfortunately, he had little use for this form now that he had abandoned the castle. The only advantage it really provided was being small enough to properly fit within the cabin he now inhabited. This would hopefully be a temporary measure. He held the nearly complete jewel out in his outstretched hand. As powerful as the jewel was... he was rather bored with it. It just seemed so trivial anymore. There had to be something better... something complete and ready for him to use.

"Kanna." The white ghost of a child turned her head silently, without so much as the rustle of cloth. "Find something more powerful than the shikon jewel." If it seemed a strange command to Kanna, she showed no signs of thinking so. She flashed her mirror towards him, at first showing nothing but a vauge fog. Then, things came into focus. Naraku found himself staring at a substance that could not keep shape. At one point it was a bloodred stone, but at another it was something completely different...

"The Philosopher's Stone." Came Kanna's hushed whisper. "It can grant eternal life to the user," Naraku felt a grin spreading across his face. It was perfect. Demons could be killed easily and purified, but if he had eternal life, there would be no problem with a preistess coming around and getting rid of him. Then he could use the shikon jewel to become a full demon, and he would be invincible.

"Where might I find such a treasure?" He asked, greed clearly showing through his voice and sinister grin.

"Through the other side of the well..." This only made Naraku even more excited about this new source of power. He knew the well led to a different world. If that were the case, no one from this world would be capable of defeating him. He immediately summoned one of his venomous wasps, giving it quick orders.

"Find Kagura and the boy. We're leaving,"

-o-

It was a normal day for Kagome.

She was being chewed out for being late by an irritated hanyou, and Shippou was trying to stick up for her the best he could. The truth was, she hadn't really been late at all, but complaining that she had been just seemed to be Inuyasha's normal greeting. Kagome was now thoroughly convinced he was incapable of saying a "Hello" or, "Great! You're back, I missed you!". No, for eternity all he would say was "You're late" and proceed to argue about it.

Of course, the thought that she was arguing with something that was half demon of all things never really crossed her mind. Not anymore. It was all normal to her, she hardly found her gaze drifting to his dog ears or golden eyes anymore.

"Fine, you win, I was late, It won't happen again. Where are Sango and Miroku?" Kagome asked, trying to prevent Shippou from gaining another bump on the head courtesy of Inuyasha's fist.

"Pah, how should I know? Miroku's probably trying to flirt with all the pretty girls he can find, and Sango's causing him permanent brain damage as he does it," The hanyou gave a shrug and bopped Shippou once more on the head, just to remind him who was boss.

Kagome opened her mouth to say something before deciding against it. As the two other humans in the group weren't ready to go, it meant that they wouldn't leave for another few minutes at the least. It also helped prove her theory that Inuyasha had only started the fight for the purpose of a greeting, as it seemed likely if she were late they might have been waiting by the well. There were very few moments where she could really relax in the Feudal Era, she figured now was probably one of those few moments.

-o-

Sango was not happy. In fact, Sango was not just unhappy, but practicaly fuming.

Usually, it would have taken a lot to get her quite this angry, even from him. But Naraku's lack of actions had her on edge recently, and the fact that Miroku was off trying to woo women into "bearing his child" instead of figuring out why certainly wasn't helping. Yet... she knew smacking him over the head wouldn't help. Somewhere, deep within his perverted mind of his, she knew that he was just as worried as she was.

"So what about you? You are quite pretty. Would you like the honor of bearing my child?"

This did not keep Sango from seriously considering bashing him over the head with her Hiraikoutsu. That worry must have been buried very deeply into his mind, maybe knocking him in the head a few times would knock the thought loose.

She leaned against the side of a house, watching the monk's actions from afar. For now she'd leave him be...

Suddenly, Miroku's head shot up in surprise, and it didn't take Sango very long to figure out why. The taijiya quickly mimicked the action when she felt the huge amount of evil energy heading their way at top speeds. There was only one explanation.

Naraku.

-o-

Harry stared at the headmaster incredulously. "A Philosopher's Stone? But how? Didn't your friend..."

"Yes, Flamel has sworn off of his immortality potion. I am not entriely sure myself how it came into being, quite possibly another party entirely. Whether they are foe or friend I have yet to determine." He let out a heavy, very un Dumbledore-like sigh. "You realize the consequences if Voldemort were to get his hands on this stone? He would be invincible. I have the members of the Order out now to try and beat him to it, but I feel you should be properly warned."

Harry simply nodded, somewhat dumbfounded. "What do you want me to do about it?"

"You can't do much, by being bound to the school, but I find you and your friends have an uncanny talent to find out exactly what's going on. Prehaps encourage Ms. Granger to find what she can on alchemy, or take a few trips out about the school with that cloak of yours. I trust you will find out everything you can on the subject within the confines of this school." Dumbledore recieved an affirmative nod. "Good. Now off with you. I would hate to make you late to Transfiguration after all." The headmaster waved Harry off with a good-natured smile, and the boy wasn't eager to disobey.

-o-

She had felt it for a while, but Kagome still hadn't quite been prepared when Hiraikotsu came spinning threw the trees, signlaing the arrival of the massive evil that was Naraku. Startled, she reached for her bow and arrows, hoping she might be able to get a clear shot at the demon. Unfortunately, her bow was soon sliced in half by an all-too familiar blade. Looking up with a startled gasp, she saw the dull brown eyes of a child. Kagome had ignored the single shard standing on its own, Naraku's large shard had covered its prescence completely.

"Kohaku!" Sango came bursting through the trees on Kirara, now noticing her younger brother's prescence. Miroku was soon to follow, grasping the beads around his cursed hand, just in case he would be forced to use the kazanaa again. However, the constant buzz of wasps reminded him of his weakness, to which he seemed none too happy about.

No sooner had Inuyasha pulled out his Tessaiga did he need to use it to defend from the sudden blades of wind launched at him from above. "Damn, seems like Naraku's going all out this time." He growled, raising the sword from the ground after the blades had dissolved.

"Unfortunately, Inuyasha, we have not come you detatch your head today. We are intrested in other things." This gained a collective look of shock among the five of Inuyasha's group. If he wasn't after their deaths, then why did he bother to come to them unless...

Kagome was not too happy when she realized what was about to happen, but there wasn't any time to stop them. Within an instant, Naraku, Kagura, Kohaku, and Kanna had disappeared, a faint trace of posion lingering around the edges of the Bone Eaters Well. Without thinking, Kagome tried to leap in after the demon, but Miroku held her back. "Don't, Kagome-sama. Its too dangerous. He's left traces of his poison, you would die if you went in now.

"But... But my family's there! He'll kill them!" She tried to break from Miroku's grasp, but the monk wouldn't let go of her shoulder.

"You wont be able to stop him if you're lying dead at the bottom of the well. We need to wait for now." He let go of her shoulder as the young preistess fell to the ground, sobbing quietly.

-o-

"Brother... Are you sure this will work? Remember what happened with Mo-"

"Shut up! I'm certain this time. You're still alive, these theories are perfect... This will work! It has to!"

Both occupants within the room remained quiet, silently considering the possible consequences of their actions. The last thing any of them heard was a clap, followed by a large flash.

-End Chapter 1-

Ending Notes:

So, how was it? I don't know why, but writing the very last Inuyasha scene depressed me. And for those of you who think that's a little overdramatic... Deal with it. I'm going off assumptions based off of episode 100(when they have the nightmares in the cocoons), so basically, her worst nightmare is coming true... Plus, if you thought your entire family was going to die, and you could do nothing to stop it,I think you'd probably start crying too.

Yes, that was an FMA teaser right at the end there.

-Chapter 2 Preview-

"Now," Edward stared at the couple with pericing gold eyes, determined to figure out just what was going on. "Where am I?"

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	3. Alchemy Arrival

Beginning Notes: Tah-Dum! Its the FMA intro chaper AND when the fandoms actually start to "cross over". Will next chapter have Artemis Fowl? Probably not. We may add it in if enough people request it, but this'll probably just be an InuFMAHP crossover.

And I have read/seen as far as basically anyone can on all three fandoms. So, yes, I know how both animes end, and I know what's going on in the manga. FMA is going to be more slightly more manga based, because I like the manga plotline better. However, I will try not to include too many spoilers in here. It takes place several months later than FMA, (Al's 15, Ed's 16), but won't include many events after Greed comes around. The Inuyasha timeline is right after the Band of Seven. The Harry Potter part will disregard the sixth book almost entirely. So hopefully that'll give you a good idea of the events that have and have not taken place.

The Philosopher's Stone

Written by - Stripe and Shiechan

Chapter 2 - Alchemy Arrival

-0-

"So Dumbledore wants us to try and find out about the Philosopher's Stone? In _Hogwarts_?" Ron seemed somewhat dumbfounded by the thought, giving his friend a look that clearly stated so. The trio were heading down towards Hagrid's hut again. Often times when the adults were hiding something, Hagrid would let the secret slip. They weren't sure if Dumbledore was hiding information from them this time, and even if he wasn't, they figured it would be nice to see the teacher again.

"Well, it makes sense, doesn't it? I mean, we have a library filled with infromation, there might have been a passage someone has missed or something. And it might be something really important." Hermione replied, her trust in books strong as always. Harry and Ron found it wise to not argue with her at the moment, and instead save their breath on arguements they were more likely to win. As they reached the door of the hut, it swung open, nearly taking out the three students. Standing there was the towering figure of Hagrid.

"Oh! Harry, Hermione, Ron, perfect timing." He boomed. "Come in, Come in." The three gave each other a look and crowded into Hagrid's home. The house was more or less the same as usual, apart from one thing. A big bundle of fur, which much have been one of Hagrid's coats, was sitting in the corner of the room. Upon furthur inspection, there was somebody _in_ the big bundle of fur. Harry could make out long blond hair and part of the face, which seemed rather young, but not much else.

"Um..." with a worried look, he turned to Hagrid, who was quick to explain.

"I just found him lying out around the edge of the forest a few minutes ago, strangest thing. He was unconcious so I brought him in here before something else found him. Don't know where he came from or how he got here. Awfully thin though. I was about to bring him to the Hospital Wing actually..." The trio gave each other a look. Wasn't Hagrid at all suspicious? The boy may not look very threatening at the moment, but looks could be decieving. A seemingly harmless old rat could be the cause of one thousand deaths, they knew that much first-hand. Still, Hogwarts was protected by Dumbledore, the greatest wizard of his time. Wouldn't he know if the boy was a threat or not? It couldn't hurt.

-0-

"The poison seems to have dispersed. It should be safe to go through now," Miroku anounced to the restless group, to find Kagome was already standing. Sango stood up as well, adjusting the boomerang on her back, and Inuyasha jumped down from the tree he had temprarily taken residence in.

"Is it possible for all of us to get through the well, though?" Sango asked with a small frown. It was a good question. It was proven that Kagome and Inuyasha could get through the well, but if the rest of them couldn't, the duo would easily be outnumbered. Kagome held out the single jewel shard the group had managed to keep a hold of.

"I guess we'll just need to find out firsthand," She said, now standing at the edge of the well. "This is no time to be worrying about failure." Inuyasha, Sango, Miroku, and Shippou joined her at the edge, and, all at once, jumped in. A flash of blue light towards the bottom of the well signified the jewel shard had done its job.

-0-

However graceful their entrance was, the exit was anything but. Shippou was perfectly fine, he landed on top of Kagome. Who had landed on top of Miroku. Who had landed on top of Sango. Who had landed on top of Inuyasha. Needless to say, the hanyou at the bottom was anything but happy. Kagome was quick to get off of the pile of people, and was also smart enough to quickly begin climbing the ladder that led to the top of the well. Needless to say, Miroku was soon left with a red hand mark on his face. After much scrambling about, the other three members of the group had climbed out of the top of the well, only to find Kagome had gone quite a bit ahead of them. Instead of trying to shoot down Naraku with a purifying arrow, however, she was talking to a woman.

"Don't worry, everyone in the house is safe and sound," The woman said to a very grateful Kagome. "That Naru guy seemed more intent on other things, that worries me more... You say you know something about him?" Kagome nodded, listening to every word the woman was saying. The young fox sitting on her shoulder, however, was more concerned with other matters. Matters such as the woman's shockingly pink hair, which was slowly fading to a purple color.

-0-

The first thing that Edward was aware of was the fact that he was in a bed, when he was supposed to be in an abandoned military warehouse. That meant that he had been knocked unconscious, and someone had been kind enough to move him. However, that only raised more questions, such as who had moved him, where was he now, and what had happened.

Most importantly, however, was the location of his younger brother.

The two brothers had succeeded in their quest for the Philosopher's Stone, some idiot had transmuted a rather large town into one. It wasn't a very large or powerful stone, such as something one might achieve from the destruction of a country, but it was enough to get Al's body back. Or so he had believed.

Edward cracked open an eye and could immediately tell he was not in a hospital. There wasn't the glaring white light from above that made you think you were dead, only a gentle ray of sun coming in from a partially obsured window. That meant he was at somebody's house. Opening both eyes, the alchemist looked around the room for clues.

Unfortunately, he found very few. It seemed to be a normal bedroom, which probably belonged to somebody with not a lot of money. It was small and undecorative, much unlike the house of someone with plenty of cash to spare. Carefuly, he flexed his automail fingers, as if to make sure they were still working. Thankfully, everything seemed in order. Edward was about to get out of the bed and look around more closely before he heard irritable voices approaching the door.

"I'm teling you, Molly, he shouldn't be trusted. He could be working for You-Know-Who, and you kindly bring him into our house without question."

"For heaven's sake, he was unconscious!" Something told Edward to pretend as if he were still unconscious, and he immediately flopped back on the bed, just as the door creaked open. "See, he's still asleep,"

"Yes, but don't you find it at all suspicous that-"

"He's just a child! Probably younger than Ginny is! Last time I checked, she wasn't under suspision." At this point, Edward could tell that they were standing right next to his bed.

"Maybe that's what they want us to think. He has metalic limbs! I've worked with muggle mechanics for a good portion of my life, and I happen to know that they are far from concocting something like what he has. Plus, how did he lose the limbs in the first place? I will admit he's small, but..."

At this point, the alchemist couldn't keep quiet anymore. He opened both eyes, seeming to startle the two who had been talking, a middle-aged couple. "I'm not small" He growled out under his breath, sitting up again. "Now," Edward stared at the couple with pericing golden eyes, determined to figure out just what was going on. "Where am I?"

-0-

Alphonse felt a numbing pain in his stomach as he came to. As if he hadn't eaten in years.

Then it hit him that he hadn't eaten in years. He hadn't fallen asleep in years, either.

And now he recognized the tingling sensation throughout his body was one of the three senses he had lost all those years ago.

Touch.

His eyes snapped open and he winced at the light. He had a body now. He wasn't just an empty suit of armor. That meant the transmustation had worked! He sat up in the bed he was lying in, vaugely noticing how long his hair had gotten. Well, it made sense. No one had been there to cut it for almost six years. Eyes wide, he stared at his hands. Instead of seeing the bulky glove-like hands of the suit of armor, he saw his own flesh-and-blood hands. He was happy to see that much, but his hand seemed to lack much muscle, and instead looked more like skin stretched out over bone. He frowned slightly at this, but knew he should be expecting it. Instead of focusing on how bad of a condition his body was in, he decided to turn his attention to where he was.

The room he was sitting in seemed to be made of stone, like a castle, as opposed to wood or brick like a house. What was worse, his brother was nowhere in sight. There were a couple more beds much like the one he was sitting in, though none of them seemed to have anybody in them. It looked kind of like a hospital of some sort, but, despite the number of times he had been to a hospital, he'd never seen anything like it.

"Oh, you're finally awake then." Alphonse jumped noticabley at the voice, which belonged to an older woman, who had seemingly just walked into the room. "Good. Now do you care to explain to me why you're in such horrible condition?" The boy opened his mouth to try and explain, but only a small little squeak came out. The woman only waited a moment before deciding it wasn't too important. "Nevermind. Drink this before you starve to death," And at this she handed him a drink of some sort. Though he was a bit hesitant at first, Alphonse determined that it would probably be best to do as she said. Wordlessly, he reached out and took the drink, and gulped it down. It wasn't the greatest tasting thing in the world, it tasted like cough medicine, but to Alphonse it was the best thing in the world. He had almost forgotten what flavor and smell were like, so even something he'd normally hate would taste great. Also, whatever he had drank seemed to eliminate the knawing feeling in his stomach. "Now you stay there and try to learn to speak before Professer Dumbledore gets here. I'm sure he'll have a few questions to ask you."

Alphonse opened his mouth to ask who "Professer Dumbledore" was - the way she said the name sounded somewhat threatening - but once again found he was having trouble speaking. Apparently his voice was a little rusty from lack of use. He also had a feeling that using lips to pronounce words would be another thing he'd need to practice. At this point, the woman disapeared into a different room, leaving Al by himself again. Having nothing better to do, the young alchemist decided to try and reteach himself how to talk. He could only be glad that no one else was in the room at the time, they would have thought he'd gone insane.

He had only gotten his speech to be audible and only slightly understandable, however, by the time the door opened to reveal four new people. The first, Alphonse assumed, was 'Professer Dumbledore", based off of the fact he was the only one who looked to be an adult. He was an elderly man, though he did not give off a sense of feebleness, as might be expected. The other three seemed to be around his age, possibly older -two boys and one girl. The group immediately headed over to his bedside, though, thankfully, it didn't seem that they would try to scare answers out of him. The elder was the first to speak.

"Who are you?" That was a simple enough question. Thankfully, Alphonse had been anticipating this question, and had made sure he could pronounce his name. Hopefully he wouldn't be recognized as one of the famous Elric Brothers.

"Alphonse Elric" He responded simply, though he'd almost slurred his last name to Elrc. There didn't seem to be any reaction at his name, thank goodness. That meant he probably wouldn't be dicsriminated against for having a relative in the military.

"Do you have any connections to Voldemort?" Alphonse noticed one of the boys, a red-head, cringe slightly at the name.

"Voldemort?" The blonde frowned slightly. The named had come out more like Volemert, but regardless, he seemed to have gotten the point across. The three standing behind Dumbledore looked at each other with strange expressions.

"Do you know anything about the Philosopher's Stone?" The alchemist didn't answer this question, and instead let his mouth hang halfway open. Of course, he knew a lot about the stone having studied the thing for nearly five years. But there was no way he would reveal that much to complete strangers. The girl, seeing his expression, decided to speak up at this point.

"Maybe you'd be more inclined to tell us if we explained first..."

-0-

Edward was now downstairs in the Weasley Living Room, relaxing on the couch. Or, at least, relaxing as best he could. It worried him that there had been no sign of anybody else nearby when Mrs. Weasley had found him unconscious. That meant that the transmutation might have failed and Al was...

No, best not to think about that now. For now maybe he should try to figure out how there was a feather duster that was dusting the nearby bookshelf by itself. Maybe it was mechanical somehow, or held up by string. No. That still didn't seem to make sense, he'd be able to see the strings, and there'd have to be someone controlling it. If Edward didn't know better, he'd say it was magic.

Good thing he knew better.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had asked him about a few things, something about "You-Know-Who", though Ed really didn't know who, and about the Philosopher's Stone. Ed had withheld a bit of information at this point. He had merely said he knew of the stone and had done a little bit of research on it, but nothing more. They had said something about "waiting for Tonks to come back", and then left Edward to sit in their living room. He glared at the duster, which was getting dangerously close to where he was sitting. He was not going to be forced out of his seat by a possessed household object. The alchemist almost fell out of his seat anyways when he heard a sort of crack, and found that the living room wasn't so empty anymore.

Standing there now were five people. Or, he thought they were people. They were dressed oddly and looked nothing like anyone he had seen before. The one that stook out the most had silver hair and... were those cat ears!

-End Chapter 2-

Ending Notes:

Waaaah... I hope I did OK with this. There were a couple of iffy parts for me... Especially Al's scene. It is rather hard to picture oneself in a position such as Al's. So sorry if that was a bit strange.

As an added note, this is my longest chapter ever. -dances- If you have any critique, I will gladly take it. And if anyone would care to check for grammar, that'd be nice too. I'll take any help I can get. Also remember that reviews make me write faster.

-Chapter 3 Preview-

Tonks wore a somewhat pensive look for a moment, crossing her arms. "Seems we have a language barrier to break..."

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	4. Preparation

Disclaimer

I don't own Inuyasha, Harry Potter, FullMetal Alchemist or related characters.

Beginning Notes: Whoo... Sorry this took so long. But this is even longer than chapter two. o.o Plus, I have officially outlined the entire story. There's even an idea for a sequel if anybody realy wanted to see one. Though, I can't wait to get into the actual action-esque part of the story. -dances- This is gonna be so much fun!

As an added note, Kagome now has Kouga's shards. I'll go back and edit chapter one later, but its somewhat pertinent to the plot that Kouga's shards be in play, and I'm not going to bother dragging wolfie over here too. It'd mess too much up.

And yeah, Tonks knows Japanese.

The Philosopher's Stone

Written by - Stripe and Shiechan

Chapter 3 - Preparation

For the first scene, stuff in _italics_ is supposedly spoken in Japanese.

-0-

"_What the hell was that?_" Asked a none-too-happy Inuyasha, who had just experienced his first apparation. The five of them had met up with someone who called herself "Tonks." She had done some explaining that Naraku might be after a very powerful item which had just been reintroduced to the world, and it would help if they knew anything about him. Of course, since they knew mostly everything about him, Tonks had decided to just bring them to her "headquarters." She had told them to all grab hands, and then "poof," they ended up here. Actually, it was more like a "crack."

Edward sat up from the floor, where he had fallen after being startled by the crack. "What the... What'd he just say?" It sounded somewhat similiar to the language they used in Xing, but there were enough differences for him to know otherwise. A little kid with a large bushy tail popped up on the shoulder of one of the girls. Yes, something was very wrong here.

"_What'd he say?"_ Shippou asked, staring at the blonde haired stranger sitting on the floor. Kagome frowned slightly, being the only one of her friends who even knew what language the stranger had spoken.

"_Maybe I should have studied my English better..." _She muttered with a small frown. Communication might be a problem. She wanted to help these people prevent Naraku from getting the "Philosopher's Stone," but she couldn't do that if she couldn't even tell them what Naraku was.

Tonks wore a somewhat pensive look for a moment, crossing her arms. "Seems we have a language barrier to break..." Wordlessly, she pulled out her wand. "There was a spell that was supposed to fix that. What was it again... Yeah, that's right. Unilingua!" A pale yellow light shot out from the wand, hitting the others who had arrived along with her.

Edward watched as the spell was cast, raising an eyebrow. This seemed to be another person who was passing alchemy off as magic. One who seemed to think that by saying a few key words like "Abra kadabra," she could convince people that she could make magic. He didn't see the point in convincing him they were using magic; he knew alchemy well enough to know better. Though he supposed he might as well let the fools have their fun.

The silver-haired boy said something again, though this time he could understand it. "What's with the freaky lights? What did you just do?" The other four were muttering things to themselves, as if they had just discovered how to speak.

Well, Ed had to hand it to them. They were pretty good actors.

-0-

A few days had gone by since Alphonse had woken up, and his condition had improved immensly. He was still unnaturaly thin, but whatever the nurse had been giving him was was helping. He was able to speak normally again, though it was a bit of a surprise to see that his voice had gotten deeper. In the suit of armor, he spoke as a ten year old because that's how his soul remembered speaking. Now, with actual vocal chords, he had the more mature voice of a fifteen-year old. He had also relearned how to walk, which hadn't been quite as hard as speaking had.

Hermione Granger, the girl who had been with Professer Dumbledore, had taken the liberty of explaining everything to him. Amazingly, Alphonse hadn't found himself as surprised as he thought he'd be when he heard they were studying "magic." He also didn't jump to conclusions, like his brother, and assume they were learning a fancy type of alchemy either. She had also told him about Voldemort and his plans to use the stone for immortality. In return, Alphonse had explained his own story, after assuring them he didn't create the Philosopher's Stone himself. The story was lacking a few details, but it was passable enough. He didn't know how magic, which had no set laws, would affect the creation or usage of the stone, so he also promised to help them research it. He was also sure that learning a bit more about this magic would be helpful later on. And, as he had no classes of any sort to attend, he also had enough time to do the appropriate amount of research.

He now sat in the library, dressed in the typical student robes. Fortunately, the ones he had borrowed were baggy enough to hide just how thin he was. His hair had been tied back to keep it out of his face, as he didn't currently want to worry about cutting it. He almost looked like a normal student.

The only problem was, though Hermione had tried to explain it, Alphonse had absolutely no clue how magic worked in the first place. That meant he'd need to learn about that before moving on to any information about the stone.

He had already speant a majority of the morning studying magical theory. And he still had no idea how it worked.

With a small sigh, Alphonse leaned back in his chair, a feat he was unable to do as a suit of armor. He was getting absolutely nowhere. It seemed that the concept of "Equivilent Exchange" was ingrained too deeply into his mind for magic to make any sense whatsoever. He had tried, at one point, applying the concepts of alchemy to magic. It had made sense up to a certain point. The wand acted as the transmutation circle, the words for the spell acted as the formula, and the wave of the wand "activated" the transmutation circle. Then came the issue of equivilant exchange. For most spells, the air around the wand was transformed into something - a bolt of energy or something that caused various effects when it hit something. They might be able to turn the air around them into a different kind of gas, but most of the spells had purposes that were too specific for the wizard to simply be turning the air into a different type of substance. Plus, they wouldn't have had quite the right ingredients to create a gas like that anyways. His brain groaned at the thought of all of this. Had his brother been here, he'd have figured it out a long time ago. They could have figured out the mechanics behind magic, and already be researching the Philosopher's Stone. As it was, Edward wasn't here, but Alphonse was still expected to figure this out.

Currently, the young alchemist found it best to wait. He knew that Harry, Ron, and Hermione would be in the library to help him during their time for lunch. He could get some help and also ask some questions about magic then. And, judging by the sound of students filtering through the hallways, that wouldn't be too far off. Letting out some air, Alphonse closed his eyes and let his mind take a break from the intense thinking it had done for the past two hours. He started to relax, and possibly was even in danger of drifting off, until he suddenly felt one of the things he certainly did not miss while in the suit of armor.

Pain.

Someone was pulling on his hair, a feeling that was new to him, even before the armor. Up until this point, Alphonse had never had hair long enough to be pulled, so he could only guess as to why girls got so angry about it. Now he had a feeling he knew why.

"Well, what do we have here?" Alphonse didn't even need to open his eyes to guess what type of person her was dealing with. It was somebody who preferred everyone else be below their status, whether it be money, looks, knowledge, ect. And that somebody also had to be sure that everybody, especially newcomers, knew their place.

And Alphonse was sure he counted as a newcomer.

Cracking open an eye, he found his assumption was probably correct. It was a boy, probably the same age as Edward, with very light blonde hair. He wore a superior smirk on his face as he looked over to what Alphonse had been working on. The alchemist wondered for a brief moment whether he should try and move the books and notes quickly before whoever this was saw, but figured it wouldn't be worth the effort in the end. Currently, nothing about the stone had been written, meaning that it could pass off as a school assignment. Maybe if he didn't say anything, the other boy would leave him alone, and he could continue to wait for more friendly company.

Thankfully, the boy released his grip on Alphonse's hair. Unfortunately, he seemed to have no intention of leaving him alone. He reached out and grabbed the morning's notes, quirking an eyebrow as he read the contents. "What are you studying? First year material?" He asked with a sneer, again looking at Alphonse. Al, by no stretch of the imagination, looked young enough to be a first year. This was already getting off to a bad start.

"Just what year are you in anyways? Don't tell me they held you back a year. Or maybe they've decided to do a muggle exchange program this year... Seems like the kind of thing the old bat running this school would do." Alphonse continued to remain silent. He did not have particularly great experiences dealing with bullies, and this time his older brother wasn't there to fight them off. Of course, the last time Edward had needed to fight off a bully was when Al was seven years old. Bullies probably weren't after teddy bears or lunch money at sixteen. "Why aren't you saying anything? Are you too scared to say anything?" Alphonse felt his hand curl into a fist, but luckily he didn't need to worry about hitting the other boy with it.

"Geez, Malfoy. Can't you find anything better to do in your spare time?" A female voice came up behind the two of them, which belonged to a girl who looked remarkabley like Ronald Weasley. She had the same red hair, the same freckles; it would almost be alarming if the two weren't related.

Malfoy turned to face her, a smug sneer across his face. "And just what are you going to do about it, Weasley?" He spat out the last name as if it were something vile. Indeed, it did seem that she and Ron were related.

"What do you think I'll do about it?" With that, the girl brandished her wand threateningly. The other boy's face seemed to pale slightly, and he backed off, apparently deciding to find an easier target. The female Weasley placed her hands on her hips as she watched him walk off.

"Don't have your bodyguards today, do you?" She added the final insult before looking to Alphonse. "Hello, I don't think we've met. I'm Ginny Weasley." She held out a hand for Alphonse in greeting.

"I'm Alphonse Elric," he responded, shaking her hand.

"Oh! You're the one that Ron's been talking about. He doesn't trust you much from what I can tell. What are you doing here anyways?" She took a seat next to him, looking at the books he had strewn out over the table.

"Uh, studying."

-0-

Again, Naraku found himself sitting idle. However, this time it wasn't quite as comfortable as the cabin had been. He was hiding in a cave that Kanna had been lucky enough to find in her mirror. They still weren't quite to their destination, a place called "England," according to Kanna. However, this place was much farther away than he had anticipated. Even Kagura, who was used to flying over long distances, was rather worn out. He didn't bother to think of how Kohaku would have fared without the shard. For the moment, he was still alive and not complaining, so it wasn't Naraku's concern.

However, Naraku was able to recover much quicker than his subordinates. And as much as he wanted to leave, he didn't want to spend the time dealing with Kagura's complaining. He figured that, in the end, resting would be less troublesome than pushing the wind mistress's limits.

"Kanna." He figured that the pale demon would not be worn out either. After all, how could nothingness become tired? She turned to face Naraku, mirror flashing in the dim light of the cave. "Show me the Philosopher's Stone." The mirror became foggy for a moment as it searched, yet no image ever formed.

"The stone is being protected by a powerful barrier," she whispered softly after a few moments, black eyes dead as ever. Naraku frowned. This may not be quite as easy as he'd have believed. He might have trouble obtaining the stone with only his three subordinates. Plus, he wasn't sure if he wanted the stone as weak as it was. There must be a way to make it stronger somehow...

"Find anybody else who is seeking to use the stone." Kanna's mirror flashed for a moment, and ended on showing a frightening face. It looked no more human than it did snake.

"Voldemort," Kanna explained in her soft monotone. "A powerful dark wizard in this time. He seeks the stone for immortality, and leads a large group of less powerful dark wizards known as Death Eaters. He is feared by many, and most other wizards prefer to refer to him as 'You-Know-Who.'" Naraku pondered this information for a while. It sounded like he was quite powerful - prehaps too powerful to use as a pawn.

Then again, this wouldn't be the first time Naraku had tried to move a powerful pawn. He might as well risk it. "Give me his current location," Naraku demanded. Yes indeed. This Dark Lord was about to get an intresting visit.

-0-

Edward was not having a pleasant time at the Weasley household. For one, he didn't like waiting and sitting around doing nothing. Unfortunately, that was what he had been forced to do by the couple that owned the house, under the threat they'd give his position away. Apparently his "position" was knowing of the stone, and not performing human transmutation. Regardless, he had no wish to deal with the military or police or whatever they would have track him down. Second, there were no books to read. No real books anyways. They had a few fake "magic text books," which he wasn't going to read under any circumstances. They certainly didn't have any alchemy books, or even something on mechanics or science. The only other reading material they seemed to have were novels, many of which were Mrs. Weasley's cheap romance novels.

Needless to say, he'd rather have read the magic books.

Most of all, he was not too thrilled with the other visitors. They were the reasons that he wasn't able to do anything. One of the girls had explained that her friends needed to "adapt" to the new surroundings. Meaning that under no circumstances could they leave, in fear of creating too much trouble.

Edward didn't see what the problem was. It wasn't like he was exactly used to feather dusters flying around either, but he was handling it all just fine.

For lack of having anythingbetter to do, Edward had taken up residence in the living room. He had been forced to watch that stupid duster fly around the room several times a day. He was still unable to find a pattern to how it cleaned, or even how it was able to clean by itself in the first place. Very advanced technology, he figured. He'd just ask about it later, and hoped they'd offer a better excuse than "magic." His eyebrow twitched slightly. Just who did they take him for anyways? An idiot?

Yes, he was about ready to kill something about now. And in this mood, Edward was not at all pleasant to be around. Then, with precise timing,"Kagome," as she called herself, walked into the living room and sat down next to him. She looked somewhat embarassed, for whatever reason. Edward glanced over to her briefly.

"What do you want?" he asked after a few moments. She just sat there for a while, biting her lip as if trying to figure out what she was going to say. The alchemist almost wondered if she was even going to say anything at all.

"Well... I want to say I'm sorry," she began finally. "I know you want to start looking for this Philosopher's Stone we keep hearing about. My friends are probably keeping you from going, right?" Edward simply nodded. He wasn't going to bother making snide comments now, as much as he wanted to. She was trying to apologize at least; no need to make her feel worse. "They're just not used to this world at all. Not even this time period. They're a little bit confused and just need a moment to relax and take it in. I know you probably don't understand but it won't be too much longer." At this, she offered him a smile. Edward responded by crossing his arms and mumbling something that sounded like "Whatever."

Kagome's smile quickly turned to a frown. How insensitve! She knew that he had gone through a lot, but he should at least acknowledge her apology. She was trying to be nice; he should at least use_some _manners.Suddenly Kagome had a sense of deja vu.

This was exactly the kind of thing Inuyasha would pull.

Kagome suddenly found herself laughing, for seemingly no reason at all. Edward turned and gave her an incredulous look, one eyebrow raised slightly. "Sorry," she said after she had finished. "It's just that you're so much like him..." This didn't wipe of the confused look on Edward's face, but he didn't try to probe any furthur. He probably didn't want to know anyways. The two sat in silence for a while longer, neither thinking of anything to say. However, Kagome decided to break the silence after a few moments.

"Why are you after something so dangerous at your age?"

Edward gave her another confused look. "What are you talking about?"

"I mean, you're after this powerful artifact that Naraku's after, too. You don't seem that old to me, and you're by yourself, too. It just seems a little too dangerous, somehow..."

"Just how old do you think I am?" The alchemist asked, nearly fearing what her answer would be.

"Twelve... thirteen, maybe?" Kagome suddenly felt murderous intent in the air, and barely dared to look at the boy sitting next to her.

"I'm sixteen!" He growled out dangerously, eyes glinting dangerously. He was even less pleased at seeing Kagome look shocked at this fact.

"Oh, I'm sorry; its just that you're so-"

"Don't say it!" The dark-haired girl shut her mouth immediately after hearing that, having no intention of angering him any furthur. If this boy was anything like Inuyasha, he would not be very good company when enraged. Well, not that he had been good company before hand, but she didn't wish to see how much worse that could get. Quickly, she decided to turn the attention from his age and height.

"That doesn't change the fact you're still by yourself." Edward didn't respond to this for a while. If he had his way, he wouldn't be alone. His younger brother would be standing here, and they would both be tossing out ideas on the Philosopher's Stone and how to find their way home again. It wouldn't even have to be Al; anybody he knew would do. Winry, Hawkeye, Hughes -hell, even the colonel would be better than being here alone!

"I'm not usually by myself," he answered finally, eyes focused on the floor.

"Kagome! Inuyasha messed something up again!" With that, a little ball of fuzz landed directly on top of Edward's head. Kagome let out a large sigh and stood up.

"Not again..."

-0-

"Where are we going?" Alphonse asked with a frown, now being escorted by Harry and Ron through the complicated halls of Hogwarts. It was now late in the evening, and Alphonse had been ready to go back to the Hospital Wing until the two had stopped him, saying tofollow them.

"You can't stay in the hospital beds forever, you know. Don't see why you would want to. Bloody uncomfortable..." the red-head began, though it didn't really explain where they were going at all.

"Professer Dumbledore has arranged for you to be staying in the same room as us. You can't stay in the Hospital Wing because some people might start to become suspicious. And none of the rooms we have for guests are going to be good for you to stay in, with you still being unused to magic. He thought it would be best for you to sleep in the Gryffindor Dormitories," Harry continued, making things a bit more clear. Al nodded, affirming that he had heard. Still, he couldn't help but get the feeling that Harry was being a little stand-offish. Ginny too had said that Ron didn't trust him very much. It made sense, he supposed. Al would have been a bit wary of himself had he found himself in either of their positions.

Either way, it wasn't a very comforting thought.

"I see..." There was an akward silence for a moment, as none of them could think of much to say. All the three boys could hear for was the tapping of their own feet against the stone floor, which was almost eeire with the flickering lights. Al watched as the staircases changed positions again, which basically threw off any chance of him making a very efficient mental map of the castle. This place was unlike anything he had ever seen before, and now the young alchemist was starting to wonder if this was alll actually some strange dream. Then that, of course, brought up the question of whether it was a good dream or a bad dream. It was certainly good because his body was back, but bad because his brother was nowhere in sight and he was in an utterly confusing world.

Of course, even if this was a dream, that meant that he did, at least, have his body back. His inability to sleep in the armor meant he also had an inability to dream. However, he knew in the back of his head that this wasn't a dream. It was too realistic. Details here, such as faces and words, weren't blurred as they often were in dreams. Yet, sometimes it was necessary to trick your mind in order to remain some sense of normalcy.

As Alphonse was trapped in his own thoughts, he almost didn't notice the two older boys in front of him stop and was only a few inches from running into Ron. Luckily, he caught himself before doing so. They were stopped in front of a painting of a rather large woman who, like the rest of the paintings, seemed almost alive as she moved around in her frame.

"Password?" She demanded, eyeing the three boys.

"Salamander Scales," Harry responded simply, apparently used to the whole process of talking to paintings. Alphonse was confused for a moment. Why did they need to tell the painting a password? His question was soon answered, much to his surprise, as the painting swung open, revealing a hole in the wall. Harry and Ron climbed through it, Al following close behind. Were normal doors not good enough for Hogwarts?

He soon found himself standing in a large room decorated in red and gold. A few faces turned to see who had come in, but most of the students were too focused on whatever assignment they were working on to notice or care about whoever had just entered. The only face Al recognized was Ginny's, and he considered waving to her but thought better of it. They had talked a little until Harry, Ron, and Hermione had showed up, but she wasn't really a "friend" quite yet.

Regardless of whether Ginny was a friend or not, Ron and Harry were still moving through the room, headed towards a set of stairs which branched off in two directions. Slightly disturbed by the lack of speaking for several minutes, Alphonse decided to try and start up a conversation again. It wasn't as if he was someone who couldn't stand no talking for a few seconds - he actually preferred dead silence when in the library. But it felt like he was a prisoner or something by just following them around without saying anything.

"So are there other people in the same room as you?" he asked finally.

"Yeah, three other boys," Ron said, turning to look back at Al for a moment. "Neville Longbottom, Dean Thomas, and Seamus Finnigan."

By the time that they actually reached the room, there was only one other boy in there, holding what seemed to be a toad in cupped hands. He was introduced to Al as Neville, and was then introduced to Trevor the Toad.

Later on, the other occupants of the room arrived, and Al assumed they must have not been quite as clued in on the Philosopher's Stone as Ron and Harry. They seemed somewhat excited to have a new roommate, and didn't really seem to question why he was there at all. Well, not until they asked what kind of spells he had learned.

Al looked to Ron and Harry for an explanation, but they looked just as clueless as he was. Time to come up with something quick.

"Well, the type of magic I use doesn't need a wand... It has different roots," Alphonse explained, deciding that it wasn't a total lie. Alchemy was easily confused for magic, despite being a science with concrete laws. "I came here to examine your type of magic," Again, he looked to Ron and Harry, who nodded to confirm it was a resonable response. He turned back to Dean, Seamus and Neville, who looked deeply interested.

"What kind of magic is it?" Neville asked.

"Um... Here," Alphonse clapped his hands to activate the transumation, and placed them on the floor. Mentally, he prayed this worked. Alchemy should work over here, but there was always a chance that it wouldn't.

He had no need to be worried. Within moments, the stone floor transformed itself into a small stone statue of a horse. Everyone in the room, including Alphonse, seemed amazed at the outcome at the outcome. The five students had their mouths open in awe. They had seen similar things in Transfiguration, of course, but never had McGonagal made something out of the ground.

Al clapped again and returned the floor to its original state, leaving very little evidence of the transmutation that had occured there. Though, somehow, transmuting felt different. He hadn't tried it since he had regained his body, but somehow being physically _there_ changed something about it.

"That was amazing! Can you teach us how to do that?" Dean Thomas asked.

"Probably not," Alphonse answered simply. It was true. They only had to wave their wands to make something happen. They wouldn't believe that this was a type of science, and they certainly wouldn't devote the necessary amount of time to learn it. Besides, even if they would, it would be too strange trying to teach boys that were one year older than him. The other boys in the room, including Harry and Ron, seemed to deflate slightly at hearing this.

"Anyways," Ron said. "Now that we're all here, its time for the grand tour."

-End Chapter 3-

Ending Notes:

Yeah. Pairings. Not too prevelant in this story. However, if I ever do write the sequel(as unlikely as that is), they will become more prevelant. And for those who really must know the pairings, I'll just say I fully support canon pairings. Though HarryGinny has never appealed as much to me. :P So can you guess? Can ya? Huh? If anyone's really concerned, I'll just say next chapter.

Everything was edited up until about halfway to the last scene. I may go back and edit that a tad later. So... Sorry if characters aren't behaving correctly. I could use quite a bit of help in that area.

Also, since this is manga based FMA, Al can transmute without circles like his big bro. The anime deprived Al of that glory. Bad anime.

-Chapter 4 Preview-

Naraku grinned evilly. "This is the power of the shikon jewel,"

(Review Now!)


	5. Discovery

Disclaimer

I don't own Inuyasha, Harry Potter, FullMetal Alchemist or related characters.

Beginning Notes: Sorry to say, I've already worked the plot out all the way to the end, and I really don't see any way to add in Artemis Fowl. Sorry to all AF fans. Hope you enjoy this fic anyways. Believe me, there's still plenty of good stuff to come.

The Philosopher's Stone

Written by - Stripe and Shiechan

Chapter 4 - Discovery

-0-

Lord Voldemort was not in the greatest of moods. One might think that the Dark Lord would be in a relatively good mood; he had been returned back from his "death" after many years and now was able retrieve a stone that would grant him immortality. In fact, he _would_ have been in a good mood.

If only it hadn't been for his incompitent followers. How hard could it possibly be to find a single stone?

He noticed that most of those incompitent followers were keeping a safe distance away. The cowards. No matter. Once he got his hand on that stone, he could rid himself of the more uselss members of his following.

Currently, the Dark Lord was residing in a vacant home which was thought to be haunted by the local muggles. Of course, this was really only a temporary measure. He had yet to find a suitable location for his base. It was much safer to keep moving around so those troublesome Aurors wouldn't catch his trail and find him. Not that he couldn't dispose of them, of course. That was a simple matter. However, if they did find his location, his forces were likely to be drastically lowered, even if he came out as victor.

And he'd rather not deal with that problem at the moment.

Outside of the room Voldemort had claimed as his, a few of his guards watched in horror as a single person walked by, deflecting all their curses with some form of hidden magic. There was no wand-waving or anything to show that he was doing anything to protect himself. Yet, somehow, nothing they did seemed to slow him down. Two guards gave each other a fearful look as he stepped right into the temporary resting chamber of the Dark Lord. This wasn't going to end well. Wisely, they quickly left the door unguarded.

Voldemort hardly paid a glance as he heard footsteps approaching his door. His Death Eaters knew better than to bother him at the moment. Whoever it was would simply have to face the concequences. He turned for a moment to face the intruder, who wasn't even one of his followers, it seemed, and shot a blast of green light out of his wand. He didn't even bother to watch the life drain out of the victim's eyes this time - hearing that thud as they hit the floor lifeless would be enough. He turned back to face the window he was looking out of, his almost non-exsistant ears listening closely for that oddly fufilling sound.

The thud never came.

The Dark Lord turned abruptly as silence met his ears, meeting the dull brown eyes of a boy who would have only just started school if he were a wizard. However, something about him made Voldemort honestly doubt that. With a frown, he tried to cast the killing curse again. Sure enough, the green light hit the boy dead on. The little life left in his eyes was drained as he began to fall forward. Voldemort was about to turn away in satisfaction until, suddenly, something changed. A deep purple glow emitted from the boy's back, and he caught himself before falling to the floor, standing in the same position he had been before the curse. He simply stood there, his eyes staring lifelessly, even if he seemed to be breathing.

Voldemort simply stared. This couldn't be right. Harry Potter was the only one who had survived the killing curse, and even then it was only because he had his mother there to protect him. This boy had nobody to save him. It didn't make any sense. There was no countercurse for the killing curse and there wasn't any shield strong enough to protect against it. Then how...

Something intriguing caught the Dark Lord's eye; something he hadn't noticed before. A deathly pale wisp of a girl stood in the shadow of the wall, holding what looked to be an ornate mirror. There hadn't been any traces of her presence before hand, it was as if she simply apparated here. However, as annoying as it was, was impossible to apparate without making the loud crack at your arrival. There had been no sound even similar to a crack, so she obviously got there through other means. As he looked at the girl more closely, Voldemort noticed something very strange about her mirror. Instead of reflecting the world around it as it should have, it reflected the face of somebody. Or something. What he saw somehow seemed too sinister to be an ordinary human being.

Voldemort smirked. This certainly seemed interesting. "Would you mind telling me who you are?" he asked the mirror as he strode over to the girl, showing no signs of fear or worry. Obviously, whatever was in that mirror was the boss here. And mirrors were easily disposed of if things went awry.

The thing in the mirror wore a smug look, quite similar to his own. "I am Naraku, a powerful demon. I am here seeking something valuable." Ah. So it was help he wanted then. Well, the Dark Lord's help certainly didn't come cheap.

"And would you mind telling me why my killing curse did not work?"

At this, Naraku grinned evilly. "That," he explained, casting a quick glance over to the boy through the mirror, "is the power of the shikon jewel."

-0-

Edward had almost gotten used to the Weasley household. He was almost willing to accept the fact that the flying feather duster had a mind of its own. He was almost beginning to come to even like a few of the other members of the household.

However, he wasn't quite there yet. Edward had been there for nearly six days now. And still - all he wanted to do was go home. Well, at least a place that was more familiar to him. Even Central seemed more of a home to him than this place.

Regardless, the living room was where he had decided to live these past few days. It was more familiar to him than the rest of the house. The duster was absent at the moment, along with the other strange guests. They had taken rooms upstairs, apparently, and were hopefully keping to themselves for a while. Most of them were alright, they almost reminded him of a few people he knew. However, there was one that really ticked him off. And that one person was enough to make him avoid the group completely.

It was one of the ones that wasn't quite like a normal person - the one with the cat ears. He was so obnoxious and loud that Edward could hardly stand being around him. It was all the alchemist could do to keep from transmuting his automail into a blade and attacking him.

Just as Edward was about to continue his mental rant about the cat-eared person, a loud crack from outside diverted his attention. Mrs. Weasley had told him at some point that the crack was part of something called "apparating". To Edward, it sounded like the telportation he had seen in one of the few science-fiction movies he'd been to as a kid. Only without the complex machinery. Apparently that was how those other people had gotten here from so far away. Luckily, they didn't usually appear in the living room. The only reason they had done so the first time was because there were a lot of people to move, and Tonks had been thrown off by the large mass she was moving. Or something like that. Edward wasn't too concerned with figuring out the details at this point. Sure enough, a knock on the door occured only moments later.

Edward could hear Mrs. Weasley rushing to the door, asking for a password. Edward found this whole part of the procedure rather pointless. After all, no one so far had _not _known the password, but somehow it made the others feel secure. Regardless, he had found himself silently mouthing the words that came out of their mouths.

"Rasberry Tarts." This time, the voice belonged to a male who sounded rather tired, as if he had been running for miles. Ed heard the door open, which signified the man had been let inside.

"Alright, Remus. If you'd please go into the living room for the time being..." The alchemist narrowed his eyes slightly as he heard footsteps heading towards his "territory." The voice did indeed belong to a tired-looking man, who took a seat next to Edward as soon as he came inside. The boy did his best to keep from glaring at him, but did end up shooting one quick, nasty look in his direction.

So he was in a bad mood. What else was new?

Before long, Mrs. Weasley walked into the room, carrying a cup of tea with her. With a small smile, she handed it to "Remus", as she had called him. The man took a long sip before speaking.

"Dumbledore has sent me to inform you of what he's learned on his side of things." Edward raised an eyebrow at the name "Dumbledore". Sounded like some sort of old cooky wizard from a children's fairytale. "First of which, he's assigned Harry, Hermione, and Ron to look up information on the stone. They haven't found much yet, apparently." Mrs. Weasley gave a small "humph" in response.

"Well, what does he expect? They're just children, after all. He can't expect them to get very far..."

"In full respect, Molly, they have discovered certain points of interest that we never would have thought to look at. Hermione, espcially. If anyone has any chance of finding something in that library, they do." Mrs. Weasley gave him a look of defeat. She couldn't argue with that, as much as she may have wished to.

"Is that all?" she asked after a short moment of silence.

"No, no. Not at all. The next thing is probably the most important." At this point Remus looked about, as if trying to find someone who shouldn't be listening. "He says he's found somebody that knows of the stone, an alchemist, no less." Edward perked up at this, now listening more intently. There was another alchemist here? Maybe they knew how he could back to Central...

"Really? Dumbledore found an _alchemist_? I didn't know there were still that many around..." She cast a quick glance in Edward's direction, almost as if she were disapointed that she hadn't been the only one to find one.

"Yes, he has. I was rather surprised too. Though the boy was in rather poor condition. Seemed as if he hadn't eaten in weeks. Even said something about how he had been trapped in... a suit of armor was it?"

As this bit of information leaked out, Edward felt his heart beginning to pound hard in his chest. An alchemist stuck in a suit of armor? There was only one person he knew that fit that description. Then that meant that possibly...

He sat up straight, turning to look at Remus with wide eyes. "AL?"

Remus, who had mostly been ignoring Edward's prescence in the room until that point, was alarmed by the teen's sudden reaction. He looked at Mrs. Weasley for a moment, as if silently asking whether or not it was safe to say anything else. Not wanting the information withheld from him, the boy tried to calm himself down enough to explain in better detail.

"My younger brother, Alphonse. He was with me before I ended up... here," Ed started. "I thought that he had been left behind or..." The alchemist found he couldn't finish the sentence. Remus seemed to understand.

"He did say his name was Alphonse Elric. And if I'm correct, he has mentioned his older brother a few times," the older man offered. Edward relaxed considerably, leaning back into the cushions of the couch. That meant that Al was in this crazy world too, and, most importantly, _alive_. He was _alive _and _human_. He hadn't been killed during the transmutation, he just hadn't ended up in the same place...

And, if that hadn't raised even more questions, the alchemist might have finally been somewhat content in this world.

-0-

Alphonse had quickly learned to rely on Hermione's knowledge of magic over Harry's or Ron's. Not to say the two boys were stupid, he couldn't really prove that due to the fact he knew little about magic himself and they hadn't had the chance to offer any help so far. Hermione was always the first to answer his questions, and usually came up with good, detailed explanations, so he hadn't had any reason to turn to the others for help.

At the moment, he was sitting at a table in the library with Hermione, Harry, and Ron. The two boys were working on homework of some sort, which Hermione had apparently already finished. She was picking apart a simple alchemical formula Alphonse had given her. Her brow was furrowed as she tried to find somewhat it connected to magic, apparently not having much luck. After a moment's silence, she began to speak.

"Alphonse, I noticed you haven't told us how the stone was made with alchemy," Hermione said eventually, brining up one of the many topics Al had hoped he wouldn't have to face for a while. Of course, he knew it was bound to come up at some point. After all, you couldn't translate alchemical equations to magical ones, assuming they could find out how, without first knowing the ingredients. Still, it was something he didn't want to admit. He had told the wizards that he and Edward had found the stone and used it - but not actually how it was made. Well, he couldn't very well avoid it now without raising suspicion. And he knew keeping it from them wouldn't do any good - it wasn't as if they were about to go and try to make it themselves.

"It was made from... humans," Alphonse explained in a soft voice, not daring look at any of their faces. "Live humans." Almost immediately, two pens stopped scratching away at parchment, and three faces turned to look at Alphonse in slight horror.

"Sound just like the kind of thing Voldemort would be after..." Harry murmered after a moment, his voice filled with a strange type of hatred Al hadn't heard from him before.

"Then... how did you get..." Hermione trailed off, not able to finish the sentence, but the alchemist knew exactly what she was going to ask.

"Somebody else made it and died in the process. Brother didn't want to waste the chance, so he took it before anybody else found out." The blonde-haired boy's tone was surprisingly simple and straight-froward, almost devoid of emotion. It wasn't the kind of voice the other three had heard him use before. "I don't really want to talk about it. I think there might be a way to bypass the human sacrifice by using magic instead. Its probably different." The older teens gave each other a wary look before returning to their previous tasks.

Alphonse tried to return to the book he was reading, but found he couldn't concentrate. He hadn't really thought the book had that much information anyways, so it wasn't as if he were on the verge of a breakthrough. Instead, his mind wandered to the memories of how the stone had come into being, thanks to Hermione's question.

The story wasn't entirely complicated. An anonymous alchemist had been going through small towns, completely wiping them off the map. Edward had been enlisted to find out who was doing this. And in the end, he had. Unfortunately, by the time he had, it was too late. They caught him as he was transmuting a large town into more ingredients for the Philosopher's Stone, just as he had done with the others, they later realized. Ed had called out to him at the last minute, diverting the man's attention for a vital few moments. This lack of attention caused the man his life as he was pulled into the transmutation himself.

After the eerie red light had dispersed, Ed and Al were standing at the edge of what should have been a town. The only thing left to show there there had once been anything there at all was a blood-red stone sitting in the middle of the desolate area. Edward had stormed over and picked it up with a disgusted look on his face. Al had felt similarly, though he hadn't had the face to express it.

Al had been a little surprised when his brother had stuffed the stone in his pocket and walked away, saying they'd head to the next town and go back to Central. The trip back had been more or less silent, neither brother wishing to discuss what had just happened. The only time it had been mentioned again was when Edward told Al of his plan to regain his body. They used an abandoned military warehouse, due to the fact they didn't want anybody seeing the light from the transmutation. Ed had drawn the circle, clapped his hands...

And then... Al had found himself here - human - with Edward nowhere in sight.

_'What happened to Brother when I came here?'_ Al wondered, staring at the book he was holding without reading any of the words. _'Did he get pulled into the transmutation too? Is he... dead?'_ The younger brother mentally shook his head. No, Ed wouldn't let himself get caught in the transmutation like that. Plus, they had the Philosopher's Stone, why would Equivalent Exchange ask for Edward too? He probably just didn't get sent to this place with Al. He was back in Amestris, reporting to the colonel like he should be.

And he probably thought he'd messed up the transmutation. He probably thought Al was dead. Alphonse sincerely wished that Ed wasn't blaming himself, though, knowing his brother, there was little doubt he was. After all, he blamed himself for just about anything that went wrong whether it was in his power or not.

Giving up on trying to read the book again, Alphonse looked out a large window in the library, looking out on the almost cloudless sky. '_I hope you're alright, Brother..._'

"Hey, Al," the young alchemist looked back from the window, looking to see who had called him. Harry had apparently finished his homework now, as the quill had been set down and the parchement rolled up. "You haven't really told us much about your brother. He's an alchemist like you, right?"

Alphonse nodded, setting his book down. He wasn't sure where the sudden interest in his brother had come from, but it was more than likely that the older boy just wanted a distraction. Actually, It offered him a distraction too. Al decided it best to respond.

"Yeah, he's recognized by the state, which is basically the highest level you can get to. You're tied to the military, though, so not all of the greatest alchemists apply, even if they know they could make it." Of course, Alphonse knew exactly who he was referring to. Their teacher, Izumi. Who, unluckily for Edward, held a deep set hatred for the military.

Ron, hearing the oppurtunity for distraction, perked up and now looked quite interested as well.

"Your brother's in the military?" It wasn't Harry or Ron who asked this, but instead Hermione, who looked up from her studies.

And none of them got any more work done that day.

-0-

Roy was filing through paperwork, as usual. And, also as usual, he was not too thrilled to be doing so. After all, what at all was interesting about paperwork? It just required a signature. Which wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't a large stack of papers which required the very same signature. Again. And again. And again.

At least today it seemed there would be a slight distraction - a very small one in fact. A very small, blonde aclehmist by the name of Edward Elric. Col. Mustang had called Edward down yesterday so he could report on his latest mission. However, the alchemist had never shown up. He assumed it was probably a small rebellion of some sort. Today, he had told Lt. Hawkeye to find where Fullmetal had gotten off to - no doubt she would return with him kicking and screaming in a few moments.

And there was no way he could hurl insults at the youngest state alchemist and do paper work at the same time, was there?

Ah yes, his plan was perfect. Only a little longer now, and his hand could have a break from signing his name on all of these fourms...

For the next few minutes, Colonel Mustang was surprisingly efficient with signing fourms and filling out troublesome paperwork. It was no doubt due to the fact he foresaw a distraction which gave him some form of twisted hope. Unfortunately, he wouldn't be getting quite the distraction he had been hoping for.

Roy was somewhat surprised when he heard a polite knock on his office door. He had expected to hear Fullmetal's shrieks of anger from halfway down the hall. Ah well. Maybe Hawkeye had found a way to muffle his shrieks and yells. Or maybe Al had found a foolproof way to contain his older brother's temper tantrums.

That would be the day.

"Come in," he said firmly, still looking as if he were dutifully filling out his paperwork. Riza Hawkeye opened the door with only the noise of the doorknob turning signaling her arrival. No one followed behind her. Roy raised an eyebrow. This was not a good sign.

"Where is Fullmetal?" he asked, setting his pen down abruptly. Sure, he might have made jokes about not being able to see him over the edge of his desk, but that was simply a joke to get him riled. Edward wasn't _really _that short. Unless maybe he'd shrunk? As ridiculous as it sounded, Roy sat up a little bit straighter in his chair, just to make sure.

"We're not sure, sir." Lt. Hawkeye explained. "When I went to the hotel they were staying at, the room was empty. There was a suitcase left behind, so it seemed as if Edward and Alphonse had simply left on a brief outing. However, when I questioned the people at the front desk, they claimed they had seen the two leave in the evening two nights ago. They haven't been back since." Mustang pondered this information for a moment.

"Then did you check the train station to see if they left?"

"Sir, their bag was still-"

"That doesn't matter. Check at the train station. Ask if anyone saw a suit of armor boarding a train. Or see if there were any tickets sold to anyone by the name of Edward or Alphonse Elric. That's an order. Now go."

Riza's expression showed that she was not very happy with this command, probably that she wished to argue another point. However, she wasn't about to disobey a direct order from anybody, especially not the colonel. She saluted quickly and mumbled "Yes, sir," before turning and walking out the way she had come.

With a frown, Roy returned to his paperwork, now entirely unhappy. His distraction was too short. And, if worse came to worse, there might be even _more_ paperwork to fill out on Fullmetal's behalf. Honestly, he was really only trouble...

Still, despite everything, Colonel Roy Mustang could already feel the first strands of worry snaking their way into the back of his mind.

-0-

Kagura sat among the clouds, her feather drifiting back and forth as the slight breeze her fan created kept it airborn. Usually, this would be a rare moment of relaxation. However, that was not the reason she was floating in the air, so she was determined to loathe every minute of it.

Currently, the wind demon was assigned to take watch over some stupid castle. Why was it her job? For whatever reason, Kanna's mirror was unable to spy on it as usual. Some "powerful" barrier, if Kagura recalled correctly.

She really found herself hating that barrier right now.

At the moment, she knew that her "master" - how she loathed having to refer to him as that - was meeting with some powerful dark lord. She wasn't clear on all of the details - Naraku didn't trust her quite enough. But either way, it certainly sounded more interesting than what she was doing. She was watching a castle. A big freaking castle. It wasn't as if she could see what was happening inside, which was probably where anything important was going on. _If_ anything important was going on. And, at this point, she was really starting to doubt that. The place had basically been dead for the past few hours. No signs of life, apart from a few splashes from the lake. Whatever was living in there was probably not of great importance, so she didn't concern herself with it.

Then, as if a sudden signal had been given, several small figures suddenly filtered out of the castle. At first, Kagura was unable to tell what they were due to being too high in the air. But, as she lowered her feather a bit closer to the ground, she was able to tell that they were humans, still relatively young. They were wearing strange clothing she hadn't seen before, mostly black. She floated a little lower, keeping a close eye on them. Most seemed to be laughing and talking to one another - having a generally good time.

Kagura's hand twitched slightly. Unfortunately, she wouldn't be able to ruin their fun. After all, that would give away her position, which would no doubt complicate things.

And it would earn her another painful, possibly fatal, heart attack.

Of course, Kagura's heart attacks weren't quick like the human kind. In this case, Naraku simply materialized her heart and gave it a good squeeze, reminding her who was boss. She hated it. Almost as much as she hated him and that oh-so-superior smirk of his. What she wouldn't do to see the pleasure of severing his head from his body...

She quickly snapped out of her thoughts, realizing that she was starting to float too close to the ground. Quickly, the breeze flowing around the father swirled faster, pushing it back up among the clouds. If she were high enough up, the feather would be almost indistinguishable amongst the bright sky and scattered clouds. Too low, however, and someone was bound to notice the fact there was a giant feather floating overhead.

Taking her thoughts off of Naraku for good, she went back to what she had been ordered to do. Directing her sharp eyes to the humans below, she began to concoct the absolute perfect way to ruin their day. Hey, she needed some way to keep herself entertained, right?

It wasn't as if she had anything better to do, anyways.

-End Chapter 4-

Ending Notes:

And even more HP characters to attempt to keep in character. Oh lord. I could really use someone to help proofread these chapters. Please? Pretty please with a cherry on top? I'll be forced to do puppy dog eyes!

Yes, I am aware those are dog ears on Inuyasha's head. However, I can't really see a situation in which Ed would find out what kind of demon Inuyasha is. So he shall now refer to them as cat ears. Because it amuses me for some strange, sick reason.

And remember, reviews help keep me motivated. Which makes me write and edit quicker. So if you want me to update, a review would be appreciated. Not pressuring you or anything, though. :3 I'm a reviewerless reader myself most the time, so I don't blame ya.

-Chapter 5 Preview-

So that green light had been meant to kill him... Then why wasn't he dead?

(Review Now!)


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